Future Educator Molli Taylor Finds Her Calling

Molli Taylor can still tell you her third-grade teacher’s name. Amy Merrill. She can tell you without hesitation that Mrs. Merrill is a big part of why she is sitting in the education program at Fairmont State University today. “She was definitely a big role model,” Molli said. “I really want to be like her and be a good teacher.”

Growing up as the daughter of a military officer, Molli had mapped out an ambitious future – medicine, law, perhaps a career in uniform like her father. But when a scholarship application stopped her in her tracks, something clicked.
 
“I applied for a scholarship for future educators, and when I got it, I was like, this is my calling,” said the Fairmont native, who is finishing her first year in the education program. “This is what I’m supposed to do.”
 
Looking back, the signs had been there all along. She had spent summers working with children at church camps, planning activities, leading groups, pouring energy into the kids around her. Her mother had noticed. “My mom was like, ‘Molli, you know…’” she recalled, laughing. “And I was like, oh, wow. I could be a great teacher.”
 
Now pursuing a K-12 Special Education certification, with a secondary interest in teaching second or third grade general education, Molli has her sights set on having precisely that kind of lasting impact on the students she will one day call her own. “I just want them to love learning,” she said simply.

Molli chose Fairmont State deliberately, drawn by the strength of its education program and, equally, by its sense of community. “I love the small community,” she said. “I know that education is a big program here, so I was like, I absolutely need to go here if I’m going to be a teacher. I fell in love with it.”

Scholarship support has shaped that experience in meaningful ways. As a recipient of scholarship support, Molli has been able to focus on her studies and campus involvement without the financial weight that accompanies so many college journeys. She works, but for spending money, not tuition. “It’s more money that I can put toward grad school,” she said. “It definitely helps a lot.”

Her ambitions don’t stop at a bachelor’s degree. Molli is already planning a master’s degree in special education, and she is enjoying something a bit more adventurous along the way. As a member of Fairmont State’s Honors Program, she recently traveled to Rome on a program trip supported in part by donor generosity. It was her first time outside the United States.

“I never imagined it being that huge,” she said of the Colosseum, still marveling at the memory. “I knew it was big, but not truly that huge until I was actually there.”

The Honors Program has been more than a passport stamp. Molli describes it as a genuine community, with engaged advisors, service opportunities, and a cohort of students who push one another. The coursework is more rigorous, she acknowledges, but the investment feels right. “It’s a really good program to get involved with,” she said.

On campus, Molli leads a women’s Christian ministry called Delight, which meets weekly and draws about 20 students. She also participates in the Baptist Collegiate Ministry on Tuesday evenings. This summer, she will develop and teach a full curriculum at her church’s youth camp, her first time building lessons from scratch, while also taking two online courses and planning a trip to see family on the west coast.

It is a full life, built deliberately, and she is grateful for the donors who have helped make it possible. When asked what she would say to those who funded her scholarship, she didn’t hesitate.

“I would say, thank you so much for investing in me,” she said. She noted that her scholarship honors an educator’s legacy, and that the connection feels personal. 

There is something quietly full-circle about that. A scholarship established in memory of an educator, now carrying a future educator forward, one classroom, one student, one moment of belonging at a time.

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